~ Author of science fiction and fantasy stories, choosing to write the stories that he would love to read.

The Call of Magic

The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint. At first I wrote off his proclamations as the ravings of a deranged lunatic, just like everyone else. But as time went on I couldn’t get his words out of my mind. As crazy as it was, I was starting to believe him.

When I showed up at his house a week later he showed no signs of surprise. Instead he urged me up the creaky stairs and into his rustic home. Odd artifacts cluttered shelves and covered patches of the floor, many of them looking like they belonged in the Middle Ages. Meticulously drawn maps were stacked upon a lopsided table. He gestured to a small stool in the center of the room and sat down on an antique chair that resembled a throne. I looked around without success for a free spot to set down my bag and then sat down with it in my lap.

“You want to know more, I presume,” he said after I situated myself on the hard stool. His face had a hint of a smile that erased years from his appearance.

“I didn’t believe you,” I said.

“No one ever does at first,” he replied.

“But I couldn’t drive the idea from my mind.”

He sat in silence, his gray eyes studying me. He ran a wrinkled hand through his disheveled beard and began to nod his head. “Yes, there is always one that it calls to. Wait here.” He stood up and disappeared into another room. When he returned he held a stone bowl and a pestle in his hands. He grabbed a pouch from a shelf and sat down across from me. He dumped the contents of the pouch into the bowl and began to crush the stones into a fine powder.

“Magic is real, lad. So are elves and other folk. The real question is if you’re brave enough for an adventure.”

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This marks the beginning of a story, fulfilling the writing prompt for both Trifecta and Master Class. This one has strong potential to be continued beyond this, and we’ll see if I can juggle this one in with the Monster Hunter series. I’ve already got some grand ideas for what happens next.

For the Master Class we were to use the first line from Peter Straubs’ A Dark Matter as the beginning of our post. The line was “The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint.”

For Trifecta we were to use the third definition of the word CRUSH in a post that is 33-333 words long.